Introducing…Dan Donahue as the April FCIL Librarian of the Month

I grew up in various parts of Fairfax County, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. It was a great place to grow up; outdoors activities like hiking in the woods and jumping over creeks were within a short distance of cultural activities and exotic restaurants. I suppose it helps that I was too young to have to deal with the local traffic myself.

2. Why did you select law librarianship as a career?

As a law student I spent time volunteering with local legal aid organizations. My work there included helping to collect and prepare legal information for volunteer attorneys who had just enough time to do pro bono work but not enough time to learn new areas of law on their own. I found it satisfying to help people and to make an organization operate more smoothly, and I enjoyed getting to constantly learn new areas of law without the inconvenience of actually having to practice law. Law librarianship seemed like a good fit, and discussions with several law librarians confirmed it for me.

3. When did you develop an interest in foreign, comparative, and international law?

I grew up either vising family in Rio de Janeiro every summer or having relatives from Brazil visit my family instead. I grew up expecting my career to have some sort of international component; my interest in law might be a side effect of growing up around D.C.

I speak some Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese. I could always use more practice, though, and hope to learn other languages in the future.

6. What is your most significant professional achievement?

I think I’m still too new at being a law librarian to have achieved anything very significant that can be credited to me. I’ve had a few pro se members of the public send me thanks after their issues are resolved, though, so while I don’t know exactly what results I’ve contributed to as a librarian the way I did when I was a practicing attorney, I like to think that I’m still achieving something valuable.

7. What is your biggest food weakness?

Barbecue. Dim sum and étouffée are both very close seconds.

8. What song makes you want to get up to dance and sing?

I like pretty much everything equally.

9. What ability or skill do you most wish you had (that you don’t have already)?

I wish I could speak extra languages every time a need for them comes up in the course of work. I gather that’s a common hazard of working in international law librarianship.

10. Aside from the basic necessities, what is one thing you not go a day without?

I’m capable of going without a working Internet connection, but it isn’t fun.

11. Anything else you would like to share with us?

I’m looking forward to seeing you all at the FCIL conference this summer.